Arms
by Maryana Snape
Summary: Set during early season 3. We know Cuddy has been pregnant and miscarried as she confesses it to Wilson. What if House had known too, about the pregnancy, kept an eye on her? What if he had been the one to comfort her after her miscarriage? House and Cuddy friendship. "You put your arms around me and I'm home." One shot.


_Hey there! So happy to be back! My first House fic. Not particularly romantic, but, for me, a much more important friendship for our favourite couple._

 _Inspired by Christina Perri's_ Arms, _one of my favourite songs._

 _Forgive me for some mistakes that might exist, I'm kinda rusty ;) enjoy._

… _..._

 _I_ _never thought that you would be the one to hold my heart_

 **Cuddy's** **POV**

House was, as usually, right: Cuddy smiled, looking at the two pale blue lines appearing in the plastic stick. _That gloating bastard_ , she thought, although she couldn't help but smile at the happy circumstances her life was coming to.

She had felt his eyes lingering on her the whole week, despite the usual dirty looks, that were generally followed by dirty comments. She thought he was just more attentive than usual, until Friday, when he had finally verbalized his thoughts. "Looks to me like those puppies are going into the dairy business..."

"I'm not pregnant."She had verbalized almost instantly. But as soon as the words left her mouth, her mind raced. _I'm not, am I?_ The truth was she didn't know. She had done an implantation some weeks before, but she was certain that it wouldn't work just like the previous times, so she didn't hold on to the thought, moving on with her regular life without paying much attention to it.

Funny it had been House to alert her to the concretization of her biggest dream. She thought of calling him, but somehow saying it out loud would break her happiness bubble. And that night she went to bed with a smile on her face.

 **House's POV**

He ran into Cuddy at the hospital entrance, as he was trying to sneak in past 11 am without being seen.

"You're late." She told him, but her tone was light and she looked almost amused.

"I didn't want to come because my boss bullies me, but mommy made me come!" He whined, but she chuckled. He studied her more closely. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing, why?" She smiled, walking away.

He eyed her suspiciously. "I'm glad you enjoyed our night. My place tonight?" He said loudly, causing several heads to turn and eyebrows to rise across the lobby. But Cuddy, who was reaching the glass doors to the clinic, much to his surprise, only looked back and laughed.

…..

"House!" Her voice echoed in the hall.

"Oopsie!" He told his team, a childish look in his face. He stayed behind while they continued walking. Cuddy reached him.

"What made you think I would authorize you to infect your patient with malaria!?"

He shrugged. "I didn't think, that's usually my MO!"

"Oh, what a surprise!" She rolled her eyes and took another step towards him. "Don't infect him! Take a CT, a MRI, whatever! Anything but that stupid-" She abruptly stopped her lecture and took a deep breath. "My god, what is this smell?!"

"Sorry, bad gas." He cracked, but she wasn't joking. She covered her face with one hand with a nauseated look. "I don't smell anything." He eyed her suspiciously.

"Ewww, how?! It's terrible, it's-"

He raised his eyebrows: he had seen her that morning, and she wasn't wearing that blouse. Did she have to change? Had she gotten some _body_ fluid on it? Also, her makeup was kind of smudgy and her face was pale underneath. "Your blouse doesn't match." He pointed out.

She glared at him. "Yes, tomorrow you can choose my outfit." she growled, and walked away, her stilettos clicking furiously on the floor.

"Moody, are we?"

….

Cuddy was in her office, meeting two important donors. House observed her from the clinic: he didn't need a laser pointer this time, because he already knew what to look for.

Cuddy had been extremely moody in the past weeks, either very happy, or very upset. He had seen her eyes shining after one of their usual bickering, that she apparently took in more seriously, and he had heard in the cafeteria that she had burst into tears while visiting the Pediatric Oncology Ward. She had been coming in late 3 or 4 times, her mood hideous, her looks disheveled. By coincidence, or not, he had not seen her having breakfast or lunch in the cafeteria on those days. Once he had run into her, buying a big ice cream pack, and he had made a joke about it, but she had glared at him and growled "Screw you!" Yep, Lisa Cuddy was an hormonal ticking bomb.

He watched her as she spoke to the donors, her face showing off a nice smile but her eyebrows giving away her usual firm attitude. _Cuddy as a mother_ , _can it be?_ he thought, a ghost of a smile appearing on his lips.

He made signs at the catering guy, giving a last glance at the slimy, cold oysters in his tray. He watched as the other entered her office, looking determined as he spoke to her, despite Cuddy's shocked face. House knew his lines, as he had instructed the guy to tell her it was a board administration's gift. He watched amused as the caterer showed her the oysters, closer to her face than usually advised, and waited for her reaction.

He looked expectantly as her face transfigured, turning white, and grinned wildly as he saw _prim, proper_ Dean of Medicine, Doctor Lisa Cuddy run out of her office, one hand covering her mouth, as the donors looked at each other astonished. _Gott'ya!_

 _I hope that you see right through my walls_

…..

"I'll go get Cuddy's approval." House said, getting up.

"Cuddy's not here today, Hourani is replacing her." Cameron said, not looking up from the patient's file.

"Where is she?" He asked quickly. Cuddy never took a day off, not even when she was sick, dragging herself to work looking absolutely awful. And lately it had been clear that spitting off her stomach every morning didn't stop her from coming to work.

He grabbed his jacket and his crash helmet. "Where are you going?" Cameron asked, looking up from the files with an annoyed face. _Of course_ House was going to check on Cuddy.

"Getting approval from our actual boss."

…..

 **House's POV**

He parked his motorcycle outside Cuddy's house. Her car was there, but all windows and blinds were closed. He crossed her garden and knocked on the door. When he didn't get any answer, he knocked harder. A few seconds later, the door unlocked and Cuddy hesitantly opened it. She was wearing a flannel pajama pants, a knitwear jumper and her hair was in a messy ponytail, but what caught his attention were her eyes, – puffy, bloodshot and red. "I'm not working today." She said harshly and her voice was raspy and harsh.

"I know, but I came to check on you, to see if morning sickness hadn't gotten the best out of you-" His words apparently caused a change in her body language: she held onto the door until her knuckles turned white, and her eyes were suddenly filled with water. He felt his own heart falling at his feet. "You miscarried." he mumbled, finding it hard to pronounce the words, that had been chosen carefully, in an unconscious attempt not to hurt her any further.

 **Cuddy's POV**

"You miscarried." Yeah, this was typical House, rubbing everything on her face mercilessly. She could feel herself starting to crumble in front of him, so she rapidly motioned to close the door, to hide and let herself crumble alone. His firm hand on the door stopped the motion. She looked up to him, her vision blurred by tears.

"Cuddy, I-" He mumbled, but she cut him off before he could deliver any cutting remark.

"Yeah, I lost it!" Congrats for your discovery, are you happy? Do you want to point out loud all the pros of this situation, like the fact that I'd suck as a mother, or that I'm a single woman incapable of raising a child?" She was yelling at this point, tears streaming down her face, but she didn't bother anymore. "Or would you like to go over the cons, like my boobs not getting any bigger than they are or that my womb is apparently incapable of keeping a _child_ -" Her voice broke as she choked up on her own tears, but she didn't care to wipe them out of her face. She looked up to him, hoping her devastated, tearful, _broken_ face would be able to disarm him of making any cruel comments, because she couldn't take it. _Not now_.

When she looked up, looking straight into his piercing blue eyes, they were full of something she had never seen.

 _I hope that you catch me 'cause I'm already falling_

 **House's POV**

He felt heartbroken, seeing her heartbroken. She was _naked_ in front of him, her soul, her feelings, pouring out right _in front of him_.

She had never told him, but he was sure that she knew he knew. He also knew how much she wanted this: when she asked for his help with the injections, he could feel she was putting all her heart into it. When she told him about the donors, he could feel the controlled excitement towards the fact that it meant someone to father _her baby_. He used to tease her, but he had managed to be less of a jerk about it.

He had suspected she had gone through an implantation one Friday afternoon she had missed work. However, a couple of weeks later she looked so miserable for a couple of days that not even he had had the capacity to mistreat her.

But now, _now_ he knew: he knew how happy she had been and how devastated she was now right in front of him. She was broken. And, through her pain and her sorrow, so was he.

"I'm very sorry, Cuddy." His voice was harsh and hurt, and surprised both of them.

 **Cuddy's POV**

She was speechless for a moment. House, at her door, saying he was _sorry_ for the loss of her unborn child, a decision that he used to mock and condemn?!

But when she looked into his eyes, she saw sadness, mourning, _love..._

She remembered a moment they had shared a couple of weeks before: the morning had been cold, and the hospital parking lot icy. She had been having a hard time balancing herself on top of her stilettos pumps while carrying several files, her purse, her tea bottle and her umbrella. She had felt her foot slip under her, and for a brief moment she was falling, until a strong grip had held her by her elbow. She had looked up to see House, thinking how such an inconvenient person, most of the times, had now managed to be at the perfect place, at the perfect time. "Careful.", he had said, his voice deep and his look meaningful, "We don't want you to slip on this ice."

She had looked into eyes and immediately had known he knew. Of course he knew, he's House. No matter how deeply she had concealed what was happening to her, _on her_ , of course House, of all people, would be able to know.

And now, remembering this and being right before him was enough to make all her pain, the pain she had been trying to bottle somehow, surface massively.

 _The world is coming down on me and I can't find a reason to be loved_

 **House's POV**

He watched helpless as she let her head fall to her chest and her tears were replaced by gut wrenching sobs. He had never felt so powerless in his entire life, and he wished there was some way he could take away her pain.

He placed a hand on her arm, clumsily but gently, feeling her petite body trembling underneath it. She apparently took the gesture as an invitation to collapse into his arms, the softness of her wet skin in contact with the hardness of his leather jacket. He froze for a brief moment, before gently resting his hands on her back.

 **Cuddy's POV**

He didn't shush her. He didn't run his hands through her back, or kiss the top of her head. He didn't whisper in her ear that everything would be fine, because he knew he wasn't. He just held. And because of that, she was thankful.

 _You put your arms around me and I'm home_

…

 _Hope you liked it! Reviews keep me rolling!_


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